‘RP is Asia’s dumping capital’

The Philippines is not only Asia’s kidnapping center but is the region’s dumping capital as well, Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Lakas, Surigao del Norte) said yesterday.

"Low tariff, porous borders and a corrupt bureaucracy have combined to make the country a magnet of smuggled, dumped goods," he said.

Barbers said foreign-made goods, including rice, sugar, corn, noodles, matches, and even vegetables, "are being brought into the country with impunity."

"Farms are wilting under the assault from imports, and so are manufacturing plants," he added.

The Lakas congressman cited tire manufacturing as one local industry that has been killed by imports.

He said the Philippines imposes a mere 15-percent tariff on imported tires, compared to 30 percent in Malaysia, China and Taiwan.

"As a result, tire imports from China rose 156 percent from January 1998 to September 2000, those from Indonesia by 39 percent, from Japan by 84 percent and from Korea by 109 percent," Barbers said.

Local car battery makers are slowly being edged out of the market by importers, resulting in the closure of at least three battery factories, he said.

"Imported cement now accounts for 35 percent of the domestic market. Imports from Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia have jumped 433 percent five years ago, forcing local cement firms to lay off about 4,000 workers," Barbers said.

He stressed that cities like Iligan, Danao, Surigao and Davao are worried about the closure of cement plants in their areas "if we allow the anomalous situation of flooding the country with imported cement."

He pointed out that thousands of small poultry raisers had long ago closed shop because of the dumping here of cheap chicken brought in from other Asian countries and from even as far as the United States.

The glass and textile industries are also in danger of being wiped out by cheap imports, Barbers said.

He called for a review of the country’s commitments to the World Trade Organization, saying "our WTO negotiators were so mayabang that they erected new tariff walls while their counterparts chose the prudent path."

Barbers warned the government that unless safeguard measures are put in place, "our local industries will be dropping dead like flies."